"Moby Dick" by Troy's Work Table.
Sidewalk chalk wash, sidewalk chalk, chalk pastels, and charcoal pencil on 12" x 12" concrete board.
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"'Pale mast, so long!' I say, as I drown, mad..." —from "Moby Dick" by Anthony Etherin
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This poem is Oulipo on steroids.
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There are multiple constraints.
First, it is a sonnet, which means fourteen line of ten syllables in each line. Second, it is a Petrarchan sonnet, which means that its rhyme scheme is a b b a a b b a c d c d c d. Third, it is a palindrome. Fourth, it manages amidst all of that to convey the narrative thread of Melville's Moby-Dick.
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Let's return to the fact that the poem is a palindrome. Not only is it bound by number of lines and syllables and end rhymes, but it does it all with the second set of seven lines being a mirror image of the first set of seven lines!
I don't even think like this. The poem is amazing to me.
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And then the poem ends as the novel, with the crew dead because of the madness of the captain, the ship sunk and all (but one) drowned.
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The chalk art is inspired by Polynesian death masks, in addition to the lines of the poem.
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